It's really tough to imagine calling one of the nation's leading on air Democratic shills a national treasure.

However, when your name is Phil Griffin and you are the president of what many refer to as "MSDNC," I guess it's understandable that you might think that about Hardball host Chris Matthews.

For our entertainment pleasure as we approach the debt ceiling at midnight, Politico interviewed some people that gathered Tuesday at Washington, D.C.’s P.J. Clarke’s restaurant to celebrate Matthews's new book, “Tip and the Gipper: When politics worked.”

For our further entertainment pleasure, Politico published some of the comments moments ago:

“Chris is now either the No. 1 or 2 guy every night since we moved him to 7 p.m.,” said Griffin, referring to Matthews's new time slot at the network. “He also beats everybody in the competition — meaning Fox, our big challenger — one out of three nights. And we hope to do that regularly. It’s impressive what he’s done. We call him a national treasure at MSNBC."

As you might imagine, Griffin was playing fast and loose with the facts.

Take Monday for example when Fox New's On the Record beat Hardball by 53,000 viewers in the all important demographic of people aged 25 to 54 and by 650,000 total viewers.

After all, this is the same guy who just last week called for an investigation of the Tuesday ratings of FNC's The Kelly Files because Megyn absolutely demolished Rachel Maddow that evening and he just couldn't stand it. As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, Nielsen confirmed their original numbers.

It appears Griffins is just as allergic to facts as the shills he shamelessly puts in front of the camera day after day after day.